Every Friday and Saturday evening for the past six years, Dorothy Gerrow has changed from her office attire into a fire suit and gone racing.

BOWMANVILLE–Every Friday and Saturday evening for the past six years, Dorothy Gerrow has changed from her office attire into a fire suit and gone racing.

However, this year, the rising cost of gasoline has forced her to cut back to just once a week. And she's wondering if she'll be able to afford her hobby at all next year.

"The cost of fuel is obviously a factor," Gerrow said while preparing for a recent night's racing card at Mosport International Speedway's oval circuit. "I think a lot of (other racers) have said the same thing. Whereas they used to race twice a week, they're now racing only once.

"It really makes you wonder if we're going to do this next year because you have to decide if the fun's worth it. At some point you possibly have to say enough's enough."

For Gerrow, who has her own freelance secretarial service, racing began when her husband Dennis, who now serves as her mechanic, and son Jeremy, also a racer, had a third car that was sitting idle. It's now become a passionate hobby. But if the price of fuel climbs much higher, it could well cool that ardour.

Before races, Gerrow fills three five-gallon (1 gallon = 4.55 litres) cans with regular gasoline at a service station near her home. At recent prices of $1.35 a litre, she spends about $90 before even getting to the track. At Mosport she pours 2 1/2 cans into her No.77 Thunder Car for the evening's racing, which involves a heat and a 15- to 20-lap featured race depending on the number of cars in the field.

Unlike hobbyists like Gerrow, professional racers such as those in NASCAR and Formula One don't have to worry about the price at the pump. Their competition fuel is provided through a sponsorship deal between the series and fuel suppliers.

However, just like their amateur counterparts, pro racers feel the pinch getting to and from the track. Cars are brought to the track in haulers that use diesel fuel. Near Lindsay, Ont., diesel was running at $1.67 a litre last month. A year ago it was $1.08.

The Gerrows live in Lindsay so the cost of hauling their cars to nearby Mosport in trailers pulled by pickup trucks is about $40 a trailer. But fellow competitor Steve Mayhew spends considerably more to get to the track from Cobourg, Ont. It had cost him $60 the previous week and that was before the price at the pump leaped by six cents a litre.

To make up for the rising costs, Mayhew, like Gerrow, plans to cut his racing to one evening a week. And he'll probably switch tracks.

"What we've been doing is racing twice a week – one night at Mosport and once at Kawartha Downs," he said. "But Kawartha's a lot closer, so we're going to cut back to one track a week."

The racers say there's little they can do to cut costs, other than reduce the number of times they race.

For Modified car owner Bubba McNeil, that will result in a reduction from 13 races a season to perhaps five or six. And that means his driver, Adam Adams, won't have to spend the $80 in gas to make the trip from Ripley, Ont., near Kincardine, to Mosport quite so often.

Adams said he doesn't mind spending the money, which comes out of his pocket.

"I do it because I love racing," he said, explaining that any purse money he wins goes "right back into the car."

Top prize in the Modified class, where the cars use high-octane racing fuel at $3.10 a litre, is $600. Two weeks ago, Adams finished back in the field and earned $195.

"That bought one tire," he said.

Mosport president and general manager Myles Brandt wasn't surprised to learn that racers are contemplating reducing the number of times they compete.

"I would assume that's what guys will start to do, pick and choose a little bit more closely and choose the track that's a little bit closer to their homes as well," he said.

Brandt acknowledged that hobbyist racers are the backbone of places like Mosport. They are to race tracks what duffers are to golf courses.

Mosport puts up the prize money for the various events and recoups it through the "back gate" entry fees ($15 a head for drivers and their crews), "front gate" public admission fees and money paid by sponsors of the evening's races.

However, Brandt agreed that cutbacks will reduce the size of the field for a given race and the amount of money the track takes in. But the track still has to pay the posted prize money.

Still, he feels that, rising fuel prices aside, watching Mom or Dad race on a Saturday night at Mosport makes for a reasonably priced family outing.

A family of four, with kids under 12, can enter the track for $26.

"I don't think it's just the price of fuel that's going to stop people from racing," said Brandt. "It's how the economy of the country is going."

Gerrow agrees. She cites not only the high cost of fuel, but economic blows such as the announced shutdown of the General Motors truck plant in nearby Oshawa as contributing factors in the public not being able to enjoy their leisure activities.

In her case, it's pulling on that fire suit every Saturday night.

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